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Instead of vague resentment, Indian Muslims must compare relative positions to get a clearer idea.

Post-Ayodhya verdict

Two things-after the Ayodhya-Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.

One – How little I knew about this entire issue in terms of detail. Hence, I never said much about this issue.

Two. The reaction of the non-fundamentalist Muslims is worth noting. This post is about the second point.

In the non-fundamentalist narrative, (like Najib Mubarki) there are no suggestions for Muslims leadership – ever, anywhere. The burden of action, implementation is always others. Muslim leadership is always the innocent bystanders in this narrative. Objective – induce guilt.

Muslims as 2ndclass citizens

For instance take the following new report

But others are a bit more forthcoming. Shabnam Hashmi, well-known social activist who heads Sahmat, says the verdict made her feel like a “second-class citizen”. “We will not stop the struggle against irrationality and hatred but we can no longer promise to hand over a secular, democratic nation to you,” says Hashmi, in her “message to the next generation”. (via ‘Verdict makes me feel like a 2nd-class citizen’ – The Times of India).

Are we making the same mistake again? Jinnah acted pricey with the support of half a per cent (0.5%) of India's Muslim population - and the might of the British Raj behind him! (Cartoon - Artist - Low; David (1891-1963) Published - Evening Standard, 04 Sep 1946). Click for larger image.

To all those who believe that Muslims are (treated as) 2ndclass citizens in India, there are three points which merit attention.

After thousands of years of culture and history, the Hindus are not going to change – quickly and easily. You know that Indian and foreign Islāmic rulers tried to change Hindus for 600 years (1200-1800). British rulers tried for some 150 years (1797-1947). It may be easier and quicker to just go to Pakistan, which was created so that Indian Muslims are NOT treated like 2ndclass citizens.

The so-called ‘persecuted’ people in India are in a majority (the dalits), or their populations are growing faster than the ‘oppressors’ (dalits and Muslims). So, this bit about suppression, persecution, racism in India, is a red-herring. Complete ignorance – if it is not trickery.

The Indian Muslim must pioneer a broader identity of Muslim+ identity! Click for larger image.

So, stop trying to hold India and Indians to some impossible ideal, which cannot be compared, measured, evaluated or defined.

Instead, do look at data – comparative data and take a call. You have choices of immigration to Pakistan, Middle East, Europe, USA, Australia.

The whole wide world.

3. Make it work – Nation-building is a tough job. It needs everyone to join in. Big, small, powerful, powerless, loud or voiceless. Everyone. You (and hence others, too) can see yourself as 2ndclass, a victim. 2ndclass is as 2ndclass does. No one in India sees APJ Kalam as a 2ndclass citizen. The Deoband Seminary explicit believes that Muslims enjoy the highest degree freedom in India. Bar none.

This post suffers from using easy, prominent examples. Maybe the problem cannot be addressed by these examples. For that Muslim leadership must take charge. Not necessarily political or religious leadership. And that mater has been addressed in other posts.

Indian Muslims must take a global leadership of the Islamic world (Cartoon By Yusuf, courtesy - TwoCircles.net.).

Comparing India

Equating India with the Desert Bloc (believers in monotheism) is without basis in fact, reality or history.

This is one thing, that we in India must understand, discover, find out, investigate – and then, after that, believe, that we are different.

Gaekwad even signed a secret pact with Hitler to get his support for India’s freedom. It was known as the Baroda-Berlin Pact.

Gaekwad’s personal assistant Vishnu Nene was sent to Germany to arrange the meeting. “Gaekwad believed an enemy’s enemy is a friend. So, he decided to join hands with Hitler,” says Dr Damodar Nene, who has written a new biography of Gaekwad and gives details of the pact. He is Vishnu Nene’s son. The book, ‘Sayajirao Gaekwad Chi Biography’ has been published by Ved Gandharva publishers of Pune. (via Hitler’s secret friend: Sayajirao Gaekwad – Vadodara – City – The Times of India).

Wishful thinking

For the past few days, after reading this post, I have been trying to corroborate this story. Apart from one small stray reference, there was nothing that I could find. This one reference was a a few lines from a 1972 biography which is linked here.

The fact that the good doctors, father Dr.Vishnu Nene and son Dr.Damodar Nene said nothing from 1936 upto 2010 makes this possibly only a claim. Or after August 15th, 1947 when the raj-gharana of Baroda had lost their kingdom and the threat of British reprisals was gone.

Baroda has very little ice

A claim that may be based on thin ice. What little ice, one get can in Vadodara.

The fact that this claim coincides with a book publication, (books have to be sold, you see) and from the Vadodara edition of TOI (newspapers also have to be sold) makes this story, again, a candidate for collusion. What could I find about the Baroda-Berlin Pact?

Foresighted Sayaji Rao Gaekwad knew there would be WWII

The other thing.

Apart from a paranoid Churchill, who would have imagined in 1936, that Britain would actually fight a war with Germany. In 1936, as the Berlin Olympics progressed, even Britain did not know there would be a WWII. Remember even the USA, joined the war against Germany and Japan, only after it was forced to. After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941.

Forget Britain!

Even Hitler did not know there would be WWII. Or even a war with Britain. Hitler’s entire calculation after his successful campaign in Czechoslovakia (March 1939) was that Britain (under Chamberlain) would not go to war with Germany. While attacking Poland (September 1939) and other countries Hitler gambled that Britain would not declare war. Does it seem likely that Hitler would reveal his deepest, darkest plans to an ‘irrelevant’ Indian king? In 1936!

When neither Britain nor Germany knew there would be WWII.

Did Netaji Bose deserve this? Click for larger image.

Did the poor king deserve such a biography

Sayaji Rao Gaekwad is respected by many for many reasons. I would not like to assess him in any way, for sheer lack of material with me. Assuming he is respect-worthy, he does not deserve a biographer like the good doctor Nene.

Addressing a press conference after a day-long meeting of the chief ministers convened by the government, Home Minister P Chidambaram said the central government is considering establishment of regional intelligence centres (RICs) to train personnel in intelligence gathering and analysis in view of the grossly inadequate training facilities at present.

He said the states also proposed central procurement of weapons, continuation of the modernisation of police forces (MPF) scheme and a more effective instrument to expedite the road building programme in border as well as Naxal affected areas.

Noting there were 230,000 job vacancies in the constabulary when the last meeting of the CMs was held in January, Chidambaram said the situation had improved and now the number had dropped by almost two-thirds to 150,000. Efforts were also under way to recruit some 84,000 personnel, he added. (via The Tribune, Chandigarh, India – Nation).

Targetting Yeddyurappa?

While the nation is worried

So, while the nation’s chief ministers were in conference on the terrorism issue, the media was fed with such photographs. On two consecutive days, the Times Of India carried these two photographs. These photographs are no accident.

I am sure all Chief Ministers must have had their forty winks. As anyone can imagine, in public life, sleep is a luxury. ‘Someone’ had to instruct the photographer(s) to target Yeddyurappa – and ‘catch’ him, when he is catching his forty winks.

The media is playing games

The media, (at least some sections) are targetting the ‘new star’ in the BJP firmament. After all who would have imagined even two years ago, that BJP will single-handedly capture a Southern state. And I am sure the BJP national leaders had little role to play in the BJP win in Karnataka. These attempts to ‘take down’ a new ‘star’ in the BJP firmament, points to media’s complicity in these political games.

In 1895 an Indian pioneer flew what is said to be the first Indian plane in the air. The centenary year of the first successful flight, by the Wright brothers, was celebrated from December 17, 2003. But our own pioneer from Mumbai, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, made an aircraft and had flown it eight years earlier. One of Talpade’s students, P Satwelkar, has chronicled that his craft called ‘Marutsakha'(Friend of the Winds) flew unmanned for a few minutes and came down. (via A flight over Chowpatty that made history – The Times of India).

Claims … and reality

Speculative drawings based on Vymanika Shastra

Western claims to superiority over the Rest usually include their record in ‘innovation and invention’. This record is brandished as proof of Western superiority – of Western attitudes, institutions, society, polity, media and academia, values, et al.

Technology – a function of funding

What is usually never mentioned or understood is the funding of technology. Technology is a quantitative function of funding. Western funding of its technology quest was underwritten first by conquest (of the Native American by the Spaniards), followed by slavery (of the Native Americans and Africans) followed by colonialism.

It were these forms of exploitation which created a continuous flow of resources (funds, patrons, technology, raw materials) which enabled this technology output.

On the other hand, the Wright Brothers were supported by the US Army to the extent of US$25,000.

These reports are linked to an intriguing Sanskrit technical manual, the ‘Vymanika Shastra‘. Some level of critical examination has happened in the last few years. What makes this claim worth investigating is the fact that this manual in Sanskrit came out in India – from a man who had little exposure to technology being developed on the opposite side of the world. A copy of this manuscript landed at the Sayaji Rao Gaekwad’s Rajakiya Sanskrit Library, Baroda.

While original dating of this document is not yet done, its authenticity as a technical document in Sanskrit, within a few years of Kitty Hawk makes the ‘ripoff-theory’ baseless.

A 62-year-old British national, who was arrested by the UK police on charges of sexually abusing several boys of a boarding school in Chennai over three years from September 2003, is likely to walk free in a fortnight because of a year-long delay on the part of Indian authorities in assisting the probe. (via UK paedophile may walk free-Chennai-Cities-The Times of India).

Mother Teresa, another do-gooder raised hundreds of crores in the name of Kolkatta’s poor, A few hundreds of the Kolkatta’s poor benefited from that money. But many missionaries rode on the backs of these poor Kolkattans, raising even more money. The PR machine of the Vatican has done a great job on this scam.

Even if India cant take care of its poor, we don’t need these do-gooders!

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